Countdown
The laughter of the moon—do you
think it’s still laughing? The
observers in the trees—are they
really observing? The oblivious
lovers on the lawn, completely
absorbed in each other. Com-
pletely—for one hour—. Or even
call it a decade. The workers at the silos
polishing the missiles, only for someday—they
don’t need them right now. And the
ruler at the desk fingering a button.
At night his father beats him
and beats him. Though really he
doesn’t remember: Dreams
are for suckers. The terrified
laughter of the mothers: He can’t
mean what he says, stroking the heads
of the still eager children. Mr.
Moon, Mr. Moon, won’t you
tell me your secrets?
But the moon is a stone
circling our nowhere. —Or our
soon to be nowhere. The
observers in the trees press
their fingers to their lips—Shh, shh,
you mustn’t disturb them. The
five precious seconds that
still might be left—for
the lovers.
_______________________________________________________________________________________
My Country
Darwish means burning.
Burning means the stones
they threw in the face
of a little girl who kept crying.
Girl means my angel
who turned into a beggar: But I
mustn’t stop singing.
—ALL LIES
screamed the shaman
from his corner in the prison.
Prison means homeland—if
that’s all that you’ve got.
—And homeland? I’m just here: safe
and locked in this house.
Exile means the truth—where
I’m not.
Kathryn Levy is the author of the poetry collections, Reports (New Rivers Press, 2013), a finalist for the Midwest Book Award, and Losing the Moon (Canio’s Editions, 2006), as well as The Nutcracker Teacher Resource Guide (NYCB Education Department, 1996), a guide to K-12 poetry instruction. Her work has appeared in many journals including Slate, The Progressive, Cimarron Review, Minnesota Review, Provincetown Arts, Seattle Review, and Hanging Loose, among others, as well as the anthologies We Begin Here: Poems for Palestine and Lebanon, The Light of City and Sea, Adventures in the Spirit, and the Japanese anthology 36 New York Poets. She was a co-editor and contributor for the group poem “Ceasefire Cento” (Vox Populi), with contributions from eighty-three writers across the world. Levy has been awarded fellowships from MacDowell, Yaddo, Blue Mountain Center, Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, Ragdale, Moulin a Nef, Vermont Studio Center, and Cummington Community of the Arts. She has received a Special Mention from the Pushcart Prize, an Honorable Mention from the Homebound Poetry Prize, and been a finalist for the Press 53 Poetry Contest and semi-finalist for the Washington Prize. She was founding director of The Poetry Exchange and the New York City Ballet Poetry Project, two poets-in-the-schools organizations targeting underserved students in the New York City public schools. For decades she has worked as a teaching artist and arts education consultant, particularly focused on writing programs for “at-risk” populations. She is a contributing editor for Vox Populi.